The Life Saving Card.

On the streets it’s known as the booze and comes in various forms such as beer, wine, and liquor. Alcohol is found in all cultures of human race. Locally or internationally brewed, it is consumed for various reasons and during various occasions.
 

In Kenya, changaa, the locally brewed liquor, that was once illicit, has just made its way to the legal bars and restaurants. While majority of its funs celebrate this ‘constitutional achievement’, many are still fighting to stop the habit of abusing the booze.
 

Introduced to the bottle by fellow boys in the estate during his teenage, Mr. Robert Owingo, 32, confesses having lived half of his life with the bottle by his side. He had tried three times to put an end to his craving to alcohol but failed. Almost giving up the battle, he found the fourth and final option out!
 

“What else didn’t we do as young men getting into real life? Life of freedom!” recalls Owingo. That was the driving spirit at the time. Nothing else than experimenting! “Each one was to be perfect in one area…so we ended up looking for prowess in what we could do best. Mine was simple; drink and prove to others that I was the best, and so, I could drink extra…” His prowess in the bottle went beyond the estate boundaries into the high school and college years and even at work.
 

Asked to describe his drinking habit, he thus responded; “I could never drink enough!” This was hazardous level. For him enough wasn’t enough until a red light flashed from his health.
 

His health deteriorated with paining joints and at a particular point the appetite for food was replaced by the booze.
 

‘It didn’t mean a lot for me to miss my meals for which I could afford from my good job; rather, I went for happiness, period.’
 

The last alarm was when he realized some lumps from his legs. It was not until Monday 24th August 2009 that he was diagnosed of cirrhosis, a chronic scarring infection of the liver leaving it unable to carry out its functions and responsible for 27,000 deaths annually.
 

In ancient Chinese culture, the liver was viewed as ‘the centre of the body’. Indeed, borrowing this sagacity, the liver, the largest gland in the body, has a vital role. Amongst its multidimensional functions, it makes proteins, eliminate waste materials, stores and releases glucose energy, synthesizes cholesterols, metabolizes many drugs used in medicine, releases hormones, produces bile juice that flows through the bile ducts into the intestines helping the digestion of food. Unlike most of the internal organs, it is capable of self-regeneration if infected.
 

A failure of the liver to function properly as required by its nature results to numerous infections of various body parts. Like Mr. Owingo’s case, the swelling on his legs were a sign that the liver never supplied enough proteins in his body. This resulted in the accumulation of body fluids in the leg region, an infection called Edema. It arises when the liver fails to produce enough albumin, a protein that helps the blood vessels to hold fluids.
 

“When the level of albumen falls, body fluids seeps out of the tissues into either the abdomen or the legs”, confirms Doctor Maruka Douglas. He added on that “when the fluid seeps into the abdomen, the situation worsens, for the victim has to undergo an abdominal surgery to repair the situation especially if it results into leaving holes in the abdominal linings and also to remove the waste fluid”.
 

Faced with this medical challenge, the victim always has two fundamental options. Seek liver transplantation (if in the end-stage cirrhosis) or / and permanently quit drinking alcoholic beverages. Since Owingo noted the signs of cirrhosis too early, his liver wasn’t badly scarred, giving him the chance to correct the situation by eternally quitting the booze. This sounds an easy way, but wait.
 

Luckily, with some uninfected cells in his liver, which, with time, will multiply and function properly, Owingo had to combat the urge and stop taking alcohol. The rescue plan designed by both him and his doctor saw him plunge into both physical and mental agony.
 

“For me it’s like Christ, in the movie of Jesus of Nazareth, carrying his cross to Calvary! Only that Jesus’ was public, mine is private. At times I enter my room and weep out the urge… I just cry”.
 

He had to undergo both mental and physical therapy like those offered at the Alcohol Anonymous rehabilitation centers where self-proclaimed alcoholics seek help. His doctor, who kept an eagle eye on him, did all to help him regain the strength and never to be an alcohol dependent again. All these were done in the secrecy of the doctor, Owingo and his wife, whom he counts to have helped him a lot.
 

The fight between the choices made for a particular objective and the bodily desire continued. Owingo realized that alcohol like sex has the attracting energies.
 

“Alcohol pulls the body towards it. We are used to saying sexual desire and energy… There is also strong alcohol desire and energy”. In the earlier attempts, “just a yawn, an advert on the TV, seeing a bar by the roadside, taking a friend out and many more would signal for a heavy thirst that alcohol alone could quench!” This was the most difficult moment in his life since with his eyes wide open, he cannot avoid seeing the adverts and bars around.
 

“It was moments like this that I would let go and plunge back into my old drinking habit.”
 

Providentially, his wife ensures, if he forgets, to carry with him wherever he goes the tag given him by his doctor. This to him is a magical card that has done wonders in his life. It has physically and morally boosted him. It reads; ‘alcohol kills!’ it has the powers to remind him and stop him from going back to the past that might earlier see him off to his grave and rather, keep the fight. If he had a car, which is now on the way, it would definitely be hanging as the key holder. He reminds all people never to exaggerate with the booze.

 

(this article was published in the magazine called: Echoes of Mercy, a review of the students of theology, Allamano House, Nairobi)